NASA released the latest information plane X Monday; a strange new design known as a transverse truss plane that could only going to an airport near you in the next decade.
The X-66A was the first commercial aircraft design specifically created by NASA to solve the problem of efficiency. Created once as part of the Sustainable Flight Demonstration project, this single-aisle aircraft takes its design cues from a glider, with wings mounted on top of the fuselage with struts holding the wings in place. This is how design works, according to Vox:
“If you think like that, or have a perception that the aviation industry doesn’t work for sustainability or environmental friendliness, that’s a bad perception because every generation of aircraft is better than 15, 20.25% more than the generation it replaces. ,” Rich Wahls, NASA’s director of national collaborative mission integration for sustainable flight, told Vox in January. “What we’re trying to do now is skip a generation.”
The big idea behind the crossbar wing concept is an update to the aircraft configuration or architecture of the aircraft. Unlike the low-wing design that dominates today’s commercial aircraft configurations, Boeing’s new design features wings that extend across the top of the plane’s tubular fuselage. This reduces drag, but it also allows for a wider variety of propulsion systems, from larger turbofans to exposed propellers. It’s also fast. The “transonic” part of the concept’s name refers to its ability to fly only afraid of the speed of soundor about 600 miles per hour.
Flying is really dirty, with four percent of global emissions coming from commercial aircraft. As air travel grows in popularity, that piece of the carbon pie is only set to continue to grow. Of course, design isn’t the only place where aircraft engineers can save carbon. The real initiator will find a more efficient and cleaner propulsion system. Electricity doesn’t really work for airplanes Not yet because batteries are heavy making it difficult to produce the energy to lift those batteries. Some aircraft engines Manufacturers, like Rolls-Royce, are testing engines that use 100% biofuel.
NASA estimates that testing of the X-66A will conclude in the late 2020s, with tires on the runway sometime in the 2030s.
